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Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:26:10 +0200http://myanimeshelf.com/enOtakon Report Bonus Round: Bronycon Cosplayhttp://myanimeshelf.com/blog/ToonAddict/490981
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The weekend before Otakon, the Baltimore Convention Center was host another major fan convention, Bronycon, which, as the name suggests, focuses on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. While I couldn't do a multi-day trip to the convention (as I had Otakon the week after), I did check out the convention that Saturday. Personally, it was a mixed bag that leaned more towards positive: it was fun and definitely not as hectic crowd-wise in terms of Otakon, but I felt that the con staff underestimated how many people were attending (as seen with some some panel rooms being too small IMO and the con store selling out on plushies of the convention's mascots).

There's not much to say in terms of purchases as all I picked up was the Bronies documentary Blu-Ray and a t-shirt (as well as the bag that I contained my Otakon purchases in). As for cosplay, while I didn't take much pictures, I did make sure that they were interesting ones.

A variation of the "hay bale disguise" that Pinkie Pie used to spy on her friends in the "Party of One" episode. BTW, is it just me, or did the hay bale disguise in that episode somewhat resemble Spongebob Squareparts.

Iron Will from the "Putting Your Hoof Down" episode along a pair of cosplayers dressed as another character as hammy as Iron Will: the muscular Pegasus from "Hurricane Fluttershy" and "Wonderbolt Academy". I personally refer to said Pegasus as "Blast Hoofcheese" after how some people compare him to Reb Brown's character from the cheesy sci-fi film Space Mutiny (which is best remembered for it's appearance on MST3K, with Mike, Tom, and Crow giving Reb's characters various action hero names including Blast Hardcheese).

This one needs some explaining. During the season 3 premiere of the show, the commercial breaks featured an overkill of commercials for Gak, a slime-like toy that Mattel and Nickelodeon made in the the 1990's that was being brought back in the market. Given the amount of memes that Friendship is Magic fans have created, they took notice of this and made it into another meme. Hence the cosplay: this is someone dressed up as Gak.

One popular cosplay from Saturday: a trio of weather Pegasi, complete with the typical Weather Pony attire as seen in "Sonic Rainboom". BTW, the trio also showed up at Otakon the weekend after, and I did notice people taking pictures of them there as well.

Rounding up the cosplay pictures is one of the silly variety: Someone dressed up as a My Little Pony Youtube video that, thanks to a troll (note the misspelling of "Hasbro"), was pulled off the site. Yeah, I have a thing for the odd cosplay.

With that, my Otakon reports have officially come to an end, and probably at a good time too, as in the next few weeks I have a couple of figures arriving from Japan and another convention to go to (yes, after considering skipping it, I eventually decided to go to Anime USA this year as a result of the concerns that I was having with it being a month after Otakon being not as bad as I thought and the fact that I had problems concerning trying to attend the next Maryland/Virginia based con after that, Nekocon).]]>Otakon 2013 Report Part 2: The Cosplayhttp://myanimeshelf.com/blog/ToonAddict/490926
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One neat design that they had to promote this year's Otakon: a big sticker on the street that makes it appear like a manhole cover. The design is a cute nod to both present day Otakon (with the reference to the Ice Cold Water Guy) and Otakon 2001 (i.e. the year of the exploding manhole covers).

Hiroko-chan, the original mascot of Otakon, as cosplayed by one of the developers of

Poison and Cammy from the Street Fighter games. One thing you got to say about it: the pink coloring of Cammy's attire and the nighttime backdrop does being out a nice neon color feel to it.

A group of Deadpool cosplayers, including one dressed up as Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece. Insert the obvious "Deadpool Gum Gum" joke here.

"ARE WE THERE YET?"
"ARE WE THERE YET?"
"ARE WE THERE YET?"
"ARE WE THERE YET?"

Given how I consider it to be the second-best original show on The Hub (after My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), it's nice to see some more Aquabats cosplay love at this year's Otakon, with me seeing at a few of them at the convention.

In terms of 2012-2013 shows that are less likely to be cosplayed at American anime conventions, there's three titles that I wanted to see get done at Otakon. One of those titles on my list eventually got represented at Otakon, with someone dressing up as Tamako from Tamako Market.

BTW, the other two titles are Busou Shinki and Kiniro Mosaic.

Anyone remember the episode of Dexter's Laboratory where Dexter is forced to take part in P.E. class and was constantly being pelted by dodgeballs? Well, someone actually made a cosplay of the mecha outfit that Dexter eventually makes in order to get the upper hand against the bullies that constantly knock the crap out of him in these brutal games of Dodgeball.

Casey Jones and Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the style of the 1990 live-action movie (in which the Ninja Turtles costumes were created by legendary puppeteer Jim Henson).

Olivia from Fire Emblem: Awakening

That's pretty much all I have to say about this.

One nice thing about the Dealers' Room: the Media Blasters booth had some awesome resin statues and "custom" versions of mass-produced figures (there was a nice one of Karin from To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers that tempted me, although I passed because I already had the regular figure). The highlight of the collection: this statue of Yomiko Readman from Read or Die (with the "paper" used resembling the pages from the Read or Die manga). Unfortunately, at $900, it's too high for me.

The Stig from the hit UK car-based series, Top Gear.

In the "Not Sure How Many People on This Site Will Remember Him" Department (as this was more a 1980's thing), this is a cosplayer dressed up as Bob Ross, the host of the popular PBS television show "The Joy of Painting" (AKA the show with the "happy little trees")

Another thing I remember from the 1980's: Voltron , with a group of cosplayers dressed as the original Voltron force (AKA the lion team). BTW, I wonder how many people remember Voltron without thinking about a certain Robot Chicken sketch (heck, even the people who did that MetLife Super Bowl ad with all the cartoon characters are aware of said bit).

A group of cosplayers from one of my favorite anime titles, Azumanga Daioh. In case anyone asks: yep, the girls know how to play the show's eyecatch music with those recorders (although they can't recreate a certain bit involving a hiccuping Osaka).

My most popular cosplay picture in terms of my Otakon 2013 gallery on American Cosplay Snapshots: a group cosplay of the cast of Tokyo Mew Mew. To give you an idea of how popular it is: the photo has only been up on the site for 1 1/2 weeks and already it's close to having 100 views (whereas my second most popular cosplay picture on ACS so far, my Atelier Meruru picture from Katsucon 2013, is close to 100 as well, but was on the site for about half a year now).

The R-Dash 5000 from Pony.Mov, a series of truly bizarre fan animations that pretty much shows what would happen if My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was done by the people behind Ren and Stimpy. Most of the videos are NSFW (Fluttershy as a serial killer who talks lie Fat Albert. 'Nuff said), but the following clip with the robot is one of the tamer moments in these videos.

Another cosplay group, this time featuring characters from the American football title Eyeshield 21. BTW, anyone else thinks that the "red eye" fits well with Himura?

More Tamako Market goodness. This time, we have a cosplay of Kanna, the skilled carpenter's daughter who quirky character traits and interest in carpentry make her one of the best things about the show (you should see the episode where she has Dela, the bird that serves as the show's mascot character, go on a diet).

Rounding out my cosplay pictures for Otakon 2013 is the type of Asuna I'm more likely to photograph (rather than the popular one from Sword Art Online): the one from Mahou Sensei Negima (nice to see someone doing some Negima cosplay this year). Before anyone asks: yes, I'm well aware of Ken Akamatsu's upcoming title, UQ Holder, and while I haven't decided whether I will read it or not, I am curious to see how this ties with the other titles in the Akamatsu-verse.

While I'm pretty much done with Otakon, I still have one more thing up my sleeve, and it's a doozy.]]>Otakon 2013 Report Part 1: The Dealer's Room Goodshttp://myanimeshelf.com/blog/ToonAddict/490859
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As for where I got the bag, that involves a little bonus that I'm saving up for the the end. However, one thing's for sure: it's already experiencing some con damage after using it at Otakon (with me having to use duct tape to repair some damage on the other side of the bag).

OTAKON MERCHANDISE

Like most trips to Otakon, my first priority was a stop at the Otakon merchandise table. With Otakon celebrating its 20th year this year, I was hoping that there would be a good haul in the Dealers Room, especially given how they were offering a limited amount of hockey jerseys similar to the ones worn by Otakon staff members. Unfortunately, the maximum size of the jerseys were only XXL (one size too small for me), while one other item that people were hoping to be sold at the con, plushie versions of the con's crab mascot, turned out to be nothing more than a rumor. As such, when I went to the Otakon merchandise booth on Friday, the only thing I picked up there was this year's t-shirt.

However, the t-shirt wasn't the only Otakon item I picked up at the con. On Saturday night, while in the video game room, I did manage to head to where the a booth for the Hard Rock Cafe was stationed, and the booth was offering pins based on some of the more music-based designs that Otakon used in previous years. With plenty of money to burn, I bought myself a set of the pins.

DVD'S

When it came to the Dealers' Room at Otakon this year, pretty much most of my money went towards adding some titles to my anime collection, with me making a different wave of DVD purchases each day of the con.

The first wave was after picking up my t-shirt on Friday. In this wave, my main concern was picking up the two main titles that were on my DVD shopping list at Otakon this year: Kill Me, Baby! and Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, with me picking them up at the booths of their respective publisheres (Sentai for Kill Me, Baby!; Funimation for Lupin III). In the process, I also received up a Funimation water bottle as a gift for making a purchase at their booth.

The second wave happened Saturday afternoon during some "free time" between the Funimation panel and Iron Editor/AMV Contest Results Show. During my initial run of the Dealers' Room, I checked to make sure that Discotek had copies of another title that I wanted to pick up, Samurai Pizza Cats (the fact that I remember that show shows just how old I am). After putting off purchasing it earlier at the con, I decided that this would be the right time to pick it up. While buying it, I found out that Discotek also had some early copies of the classic space-themed anime Captain Harlock. Hence, being someone who is interested in the older titles (can't wait for the company to release Cutie Honey later this year), I eventually picked up Harlock as well.

The last wave was Sunday afternoon, as I was following my roommate as he made one last run in the Dealers' Room. As he was checking out the selection at the Sentai booth, I remembered that this was the company that was distributing a title that I'm curious in checking out, Acchi Kocchi (released here as Place to Place). As such, I checked to see if Sentai still had copies of this show (as it's possible that some shows do sell out, with my roommate being able to snag the last copy of Haganai after I was able to find it for him at the Funimation booth), and upon discovering that they still have some copies left, I finished off my Otakon 2013 shopping spree by picking up the DVD. Don't worry: there's still a few more things I bought between Friday and Sunday, with the big purchases coming up next.

FIGURES AND TOYS

When it comes to what I usually look for in terms of figures, I was out of luck, as there hasn't been a new Busou Shinki figure release for over a year now (I'm lucky that I can find some figures every now and then online), and the one To Heart 2: Dungeon Travelers figure that I haven't gotten that I want was being sold for way too much IMO (i.e. $160). Also, while I was also curious is some of the resin Monster Hunter figures being sold at the Dealers Room, none of them really had "must buy" written on them.

However, while looking around during my Dealers' Room run on Friday, I did check the Daisuki.net/Good Smile Factory booth. You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, I'll let the following picture do the talking:

That's right, I was able to get both the Sakura Miku and the yukata Miku *which isn't even out in Japan yet) direct from the source, with me saving a lot of money (the two together at the Good Smile Factory booth cost less than how much the yukata Miku would cost alone at other Otakon dealers) and knowing that these are the legit figures. The only problem: when getting ready the figures for display, I had a little "accident" with the yukata Miku figure. The good news is that I was able to fix it with some tape (with it being pretty unnoticeable in the additional pictures that I took of the figures). However, I may need to find a "back head" Miku Nendoroid piece in the future to replace the damaged piece.

I also picked up one other item at the Dealers' Room Saturday morning: a dealer that specializes in figures and toys was selling some toy Power Level Scanners from Dragon Ball Z for $20. As someone who thought it would be a cute prop for comical purposes (i.e. scanning the "moe" level from some cute characters), I picked one up (with me making sure I had it on me when I attended the Funimation panel, as I had a feeling that the panel would include a DBZ trailer feature the "IT'S OVER 9000!!!" line ).

AUTOGRAPHS

This year was another "wait and see" year in terms of autograph sessions. Basically, when it comes to the Japanese guests, some years will have a guest in which getting an autograph is a "must do" on your schedule, while other years, it would be nice to get one, but you also have to keep in mind your schedule, especially if there's only one autograph session (one reason why I didn't risk trying to get Aya Hirano's autograph last year, as the only session was Sunday afternoon after her concert).

In terms of this year's guests, while it would have been awesome to get Yoko Kanno's autograph (and attend her "Piano Me" concert), it was pretty much unrealistic given the crowds interested in her. However, this year's schedule gave me a good opportunity to get an autograph of another Japanese guest, voice actor Tomokazu Seki. With the G Gundam DVD that I picked up at last year's Otakon, I got in line for his autograph session Saturday morning (thankfully, it was no where as crowded as the Vic Mignogna line, although, with me having memories of Otakon 2007, it did lead to me jokingly thinking about what would happen if they accidentally placed the sign for Vic's autograph session by Seki-san's line). A few minutes after the session started, I got Seki-san's autograph on my G Gundam DVD (not to mention I got to shake his hand, as he was doing that with the people attending his autograph session).

Before I get to the statue itself, I want to show a couple of things that involving it. First up is the back of the box, which is definitely something that Mega Mans will enjoy (can you say possible cosplay prop?).

The other item I want to show is the bottom of the base that the Mega Man statue connects to. As you'll see, this statue has a very limited run of 1,600 pieces (with me picking up statue #497).

With that out of the way, it's time for a couple of pictures of the statue itself, and given how these shots turned out, I think I finally figured out the settings that I should use when it comes to taking photos of figures with my new camera.

For the final picture of the statue, I wanted to show off one the coolest features of the statues: the fact that it lights up when connected to an outlet or USB line. When plugged in, the helmet and Mega Blaster illuminates, while you can switch the base lights off and on. I'm still trying to figure out how to do this type of photo on my new camera, but I was at least able to depict it lighting up.

To finish things up, here's a picture of another cool thing that I've got in the mail this past week. Let's just say that Mega Man isn't the only major 8-bit video game anniversary being celebrated this year.

That's right, I was actually able to pick an "alternate color" Busou Shinki figure, in this case the Dengeki Hobby Magazine version of Ianeria, without paying over $100 for it. To further prove that this is legit, here's the "top secret" file that came with the figure.

Introduction aside, it's time for the photos. Starting things off is Ianeria after I take her out of the box.

Next up is a pair of pictures, from different angles, of Ianeria in her mermaid form (as well as with the additional face and breast piece that came with the figure).

Wrapping up the photo shoot is a "perspective" picture I did of her and Eika from Sky Girls. Note that I had to use my bookshelves to do this shot, although it would probably worked better if I had a wading pool of some sort. Also, good thing that Ianeria in her mermaid body doesn't need a stand in order to stand on its own allowing for her to not take up that much space when I included her with the best of Busou Shinki collection).

For those interested in picking up the limited edition, Hobby Link Japan still has the figure in stock ATM (and given the yen recently, it's actually quite a deal for those living in the United States).]]>